One way to picture it: standing still and holding something in your gaze for a long moment — not at it, but letting your eyes rest on it while your mind works. The eye holding an object becomes the mind holding an idea.
From the word’s history
Latin contemplor came from templum, the space marked out in the sky by an augur for watching for omens — literally to gaze steadily within a marked-off space. That framed, unhurried looking is still the shape of the modern word.
拉丁文 contemplor 來自 templum——古羅馬占卜師在天上劃出的一塊觀測區域，他就盯著那一塊看，等徵兆出現。字面就是「在劃定的範圍內持續凝視」。這個「圈出一塊、慢慢看」的畫面到今天還在：contemplate 一件事，就是把它單獨圈出來，安靜地看久一點。（順帶一提，template 跟它同源。）
Wiktionary: contemplate (from Latin contemplor, related to templum)
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原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
contemplateverb/ˈkɑn.təmˌpleɪt/
- 1
To look at on all sides or in all its aspects; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study, ponder, or consider.
- To love, at least contemplate and admire, / What I see excellent.
- We thus dilate / Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate.
- 2
To consider as a possibility.
- I contemplated doing the project myself, but it would have taken too long.
- There remain some particulars to complete the information contemplated by those resolutions.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。